Inhibition of CETP, a protein mediating transfer of neutral lipids between lipoproteins, has been proposed as a means to elevate atheroprotective HDL subpopulations and thereby reduce atherosclerosis. However, off-target and adverse effects of the inhibition have raised doubts about the molecular mechanism of CETP-HDL interaction. Recent experimental findings have demonstrated ...

Previous work has found that first-generation immigrants to developed nations tend to have better health than individuals born in the host country. We examined the evidence for the healthy immigrant effect and convergence of health status between Chinese immigrants (n = 147) and U.S. born whites (n = 167) participating ...

Asthma and allergic diseases have become a worldwide public health concern because of their increased prevalence. Despite decades of research on risk factors, the causes of these disorders are poorly understood. They are thought to develop through complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Because pulmonary and systemic oxidative stress ...

Asthma prevalence has increased in recent years and evidence suggests that diet may be a contributing factor. Increased use of processed foods has led to a decrease in diet quality, which may be creating a pro-inflammatory environment, thereby leading to the development and/or progression of various chronic inflammatory diseases and ...

Background: Restrictive, very low-energy diets focused on rapid weight loss have proven to be effective in improving asthma outcome in obese patients, but their use in children and pubescents is controversial due its potential consequences in growth. More conservative, normocaloric schemes are suggested as a more suitable dietary approach for ...

Bisphenol A (BPA), a monomer of polycarbonate plastics and epoxide resin, is a high-production-volume chemical implicated in asthma pathogenesis when exposure occurs to the developing fetus. However, few studies have directly examined the effect of in utero and early-life BPA exposure on the pathogenesis of asthma in adulthood. This study ...

The literature on the relationship between diet and asthma has largely focused on individual nutrients, with conflicting results. People consume a combination of foods from various groups that form a dietary pattern. Studying the role of dietary patterns in asthma is an emerging area of research. The purpose of this ...

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of our research was to compare the body mass index (BMI) and selected anthropometric parameters in asthmatic and non-asthmatic pubescents. Material and Methods: The study group consisted of 64 asthmatic boys and 45 girls; the control group consisted of 68 nonasthmatic boys and 48 non-asthmatic girls. ...

A limited but growing body of evidence supports a significant role of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory micronutrients in pulmonary health. We investigated the associations of dietary and supplemental intakes of vitamins A, C, E and D, Se and n-3 PUFA with pulmonary function in a population-based study. Population-based, cross-sectional study and ...

The relationship between airway inflammation and obesity in severe asthma is poorly understood. We sought to determine the relationship between sputum mediator profiles and the distribution of eosinophilic inflammation and obesity in people with severe asthma. Clinical parameters and eight mediators in sputum were assessed in 131 subjects with severe ...

Diet changes can partly explain the high burden of asthma in industrialised nations. Findings from experimental studies have stimulated many observational studies of the association between vitamins (A, C, D, and E) or nutrients acting as methyl donors (folate, vitamin B12, and choline) and asthma. However, observational studies are susceptible ...

Vitamin D has received tremendous amount of attention recently due to the ever-increasing reports of association between vitamin D deficiency and a wide range of conditions, from cancer to fertility to longevity. The fascination of disease association with vitamin D deficiency comes from the relatively easy solution to overcome such ...

BACKGROUND: There is epidemiological evidence that Mediterranean diet exposure is associated with lower asthma prevalence in children. We aimed to summarize the available data and to know whether the Mediterranean setting modifies this association. METHODS: The literature search, up to May 2012, was on epidemiological studies in the general population ...

The world is in the midst of an unprecedented obesity epidemic.1 In fact, among adults in the United States, recent studies find only a minority of adults are now in the "normal" weight category.2 With this epidemic has come the realization that obesity is a major risk factor for asthma, ...

Allergic diseases are an important health problem. However, epidemiological studies concerning childhood diet-related allergic diseases are scarce. This review examines published articles dealing with diet, dietary patterns and nutrition in relation with allergic diseases among population aged 0 to 18 years. Studies and trials were identified using MEDLINE/PubMed and Cochrane ...

Asthma and allergic diseases are complex conditions caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Clinical studies suggest a number of protective dietary factors for asthma, including vitamin E. However, studies of vitamin E in allergy commonly result in seemingly conflicting outcomes. Recent work indicates that allergic inflammation is ...

Studying ultrastructural changes could reveal novel pathophysiology of obese-asthmatic condition as existing concepts in asthma pathogenesis are based on the histological changes of the diseased airway. While asthma is defined in functional terms, the potential of electron microscopy (EM) in providing cellular and subcellular detail is underutilized. With this view, ...

BACKGROUND: Clinical and epidemiological studies show a close association between obesity and the risk of asthma development. The underlying cause-effect relationship between metabolism, innate and adaptive immunity, and inflammation remains to be elucidated. METHODS: We developed an animal model to study the interaction between metabolic abnormalities and experimentally induced asthma. ...

The SNP rs1260326 (P446L) and rs1799884 ( - 30G>A) for the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR) and glucokinase (GCK) genes, respectively, have been associated with opposing effects on TAG and glucose concentrations. However, their genetic modulation by diet (dietary patterns or foods) remains to be investigated. We studied 945 high-cardiovascular risk subjects aged ...

The incidence and severity of allergic asthma have increased over the last century, particularly in the United States and other developed countries. This time frame was characterized by marked environmental changes, including enhanced hygiene, decreased pathogen exposure, increased exposure to inhaled pollutants, and changes in diet. Although iron is well-known ...

Aggarwal A A Center for Public Health Nutrition, Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. - - 2011

Socioeconomic disparities in diet quality are well established. This study tested the hypothesis that such disparities are mediated, in part, by diet cost. The Seattle Obesity Study (S.O.S) was a cross-sectional study based on a representative sample of 1266 adults of King County, WA, conducted in 2008-09. Demographic and socioeconomic ...

Several studies have shown that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and an increase in 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels protects against cardiovascular disease. In this study, we aimed to compare the effects of rosuvastatin and fluvastatin on vitamin D metabolism. The study population consisted of ...

The by-product of sugar refinery-waste molasses was explored as alternative to glucose-based medium of Chlorella protothecoides in this study. Enzymatic hydrolysis is required for waste molasses suitable for algal growth. Waste molasses hydrolysate was confirmed as a sole source of full nutrients to totally replace glucose-based medium in support of ...

Three subprimals from beef carcasses, Average (mean=340.6kg) and Heavy weight (mean=461.6kg), were cut using Innovative versus Conventional cutting styles. Longer (P<0.05) processing times were required for the Heavy compared to Average and Innovative compared to Conventional. Total saleable yields were lower for the Innovative compared to Conventional for the top ...

Statins reduce coronary heart disease (CHD) morbidity and mortality over a wide range of patients. The Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER) in subjects with elevated C-reactive protein, without vascular disease and below average low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) showed a 50% reduction ...

Objective:To analyze whether two dietary weight loss interventions-the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) program and a low-fat diet program- would be cost-effective in Australia, and to assess their potential to reduce the disease burden related to excess body weight.Design:We constructed a multi-state life-table-based Markov model in which the distribution ...

Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases that has been managed mostly with 3-hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) that suppress de novo cholesterol synthesis in the liver. Statins also have beneficial pleiotropic effects on the atherosclerotic process that are independent of their ability to lower lipid ...

Ezetimibe is a potent inhibitor of cholesterol absorption that has been approved for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Statin, 3-hydroxy-3 methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, is an inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis. Statin is the first-choice drug to reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol for patients with hypercholesterolemia, due to its strong effect ...

Ezetimibe (EZE), a selective inhibitor of intestinal cholesterol absorption, is mostly used in combination with statins across various patient populations. Besides its low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering, EZE exerts different effects on several other variables. In an earlier review, we discussed the effects of EZE on lipid parameters other than ...

Socio-economic disparities in nutrition are well documented. This study tested the hypothesis that socio-economic differences in nutrient intakes can be accounted for, in part, by diet cost. A representative sample of 1295 adults in King County (WA) was surveyed in 2008-2009, and usual dietary intakes were assessed based on a ...

Costs to broiler producers associated with subclinical (mild) necrotic enteritis (SNE) were estimated using published information on impacts on body weight and feed conversion rate (FCR) associated with SNE and costs and revenues associated with broiler production. Estimates were expressed in U.S. dollars from the perspective of poultry producers. SNE ...

Statin therapy is widely used in treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is well established that statin therapy is not associated with significant increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) or significant decrease in triglyceride level. Importantly, emerging evidence has suggested that low HDL-c and high triglyceride are strong ...

Ezetimibe is a relatively new drug that inhibits the absorption of dietary cholesterol in the small intestine. It is a low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering medication that acts directly on the intestine by inhibiting Niemann-Pick C1 Like1 (NPC1L1). Recently, results of the ARBITER 6-HALTS trial (Arterial Biology for the Investigation ...

The 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) are a class of drug used to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. However, in recent years, statins have been shown to possess a pleiotropic effect beyond its cholesterol lowering ability, including attenuating the effect of ischaemia reperfusion injury. This review considers the biomolecular processes ...

Statins reduce cardiovascular events and cardiovascular and total mortality in persons at risk for and with coronary disease, but there remains a significant residual event rate, particularly in those with the atherogenic lipid phenotype that is characterized by a low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and increase in non-HDL cholesterol. Large ...

This paper contains detailed results of a sub-population of the prospective randomized RADAR (Rosuvastatin and Atorvastatin in different Dosages And Reverse cholesterol transport) study. Statin treatment results in substantially decreased incidence of cardiovascular events but the exact pathophysiological mechanism of their beneficial effect is yet unclear. We aimed to examine ...

There is interindividual variation in lipid-lowering response to statins. The objective of this study was to investigate whether common variation in genes involved in lipid and statin metabolism modify the effect of statins on serum total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol concentration in coronary artery disease (CAD) ...

To assess cardiovascular risk distribution, distribution of individual low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol target and distance of LDL cholesterol from the target in a representative sample of the Italian population. Cross-sectional, population-based study of a representative sample of the Italian adult population, comprising 5458 individuals (from 40 to 79 years of age, ...

Atherogenic dyslipidemia is emerging as a target of lipid-modifying therapy. However, an optimal pharmacologic approach has not yet been established. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and tolerability of the typical doses of fenofibrate and niacin. After an eight-week dietary run-in, 201 patients who had triglyceride ...

Pro-protein-convertase-subtilisin-kexin-9 (PCSK9) enhances the degradation of the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) that plays a major role in cholesterol homeostasis. Recent advances have revealed a large number of genetic variants of PCSK9 that may modulate plasma cholesterol levels either positively or negatively, therefore influencing the risk of atherosclerosis. Recognition of these ...

The aim of this study was to determine whether the addition of ezetimibe to ongoing statin therapy in patients with atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome would favorably affect levels of inflammatory markers and adipokines. Individuals with the metabolic syndrome exhibit higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers and adipokines, which have been implicated ...

Elevated concentrations of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol are associated with increased risk of coronary atherosclerosis, and morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD). Lowering of LDL cholesterol leads to a reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and all-cause mortality in individuals at risk for cardiovascular events and patients with established CHD. ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Statins, by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, decrease the synthesis not only of cholesterol but also of nonsteroidal mevalonate derivatives. While the first effect translates into plasma cholesterol reductions, the second is related to nonlipid-lowering (pleiotropic) properties. Purpose of this review is to assess the correlation between differences ...